St. Helena High School

Infobox Secondary school
name = St. Helena High School

motto = "Wisdom is Knowing What to Do Next. Virtue is Doing It."
established = 1897
type = Public
principal = James Zoll
faculty = 40
students = 499
mascot = Saints
colors = Red, White and Black
city = St. Helena, California
state = California
country = USA flagicon|USA
website =
grades = 9 - 12
average
address = 1401 Grayson Ave.
[http://www.google.com/maps?q=1401+Grayson+Ave,+St+Helena,+California+94574,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title Google map link]
newspaper =
yearbook =

Saint Helena High School or more commonly, St. Helena High, is an American public high school located in St. Helena, CA in the Napa Valley of California. St. Helena High serves grades 9-12 and is the only source of secondary education in the St. Helena Unified School District.

History

The first "high school" in St. Helena were actually classes held at the local Presbyterian Church for 1 year in 1895. The next year, the high school had its first official building when it moved into the now defunct Turner Hall in Lyman Park in the center of the town. Classes were held there until 1911.

In 1910, Frances Grayson Crane donated land to open a new high school. Construction finished in 1911 and the resulting school, named Vintage Hall, was opened. Vintage Hall boasted two stories, a laboratory, a woodshop and a basketball court. An auditorium was built adjacent to Vintage Hall around the 60's. Vintage Hall was used from 1911 until the 1960s when it was declared unsafe for children. In 1967, a new building, now known as the 100 Wing was built. Two more wings were built soon after and a new office was constructed in 1975. By then, Vintage Hall was no longer used at all.

When all construction was completed, the school now had 3 wings, an office, a gymnasium, a baseball field, a football field and a pool. In the years following the construction of the new high school, a JV baseball field was built, as well as two Ag buildings.

Currently, St. Helena wishes to implement the International Baccalaureate program and phase out the AP system already in place starting in the 2009-10 school year. An unfortunate side effect of their actions has been the dropping of advanced classes and the bulking up of their remedial classes. The Alumni of SHHS widely agree that the administration is trying to artificially boost the schools marks.

Courses

Advance Placement

As of the 2006-2007 school year, there are currently 7 AP classes

*AP Biology
*AP Calculus
*AP French
*AP English Literature
*AP Spanish
*AP Spanish Literature
*AP US History

Campus

St. Helena High is located near several wineries and vineyards near downtown St. Helena. The school itself is parallel to State Route 29 on the southern end of town.

Athletics

The Saints, as St. Helena is colloquially known, compete in the North Central League 1 in the Coastal Mountain Conference. From the early 1920’s until the mid 1960’s, St. Helena competed in the North Bay League, regularly facing schools from the greater Sonoma area. This changed when St. Helena moved to the North Central League, showing prowess in basketball and in football in the 1970’s. St. Helena’s success in these two sports was capped by a CIF title in 1977 for football and 2 CIF titles for the basketball teams. However, after the success of their 1977 campaign, the football team began to falter, eventually falling into mediocrity while the basketball team never reached the same kind of success. Volleyball began to become wildly successful at this time, and after numerous league titles, it was decided that after winning the 1982 state volleyball championship, that St. Helena would move to the Superior California Athletic League, colloquially known as the SCAL.

While the volleyball continued success, winning another state championship in 1984, the shortsighted move was detrimental to all other sports. St. Helena could simply not compete with many Solano County schools at the time. While most larger sports found little to no success, the less glamorous sports of tennis and track and field basked in success in the late 1980’s. The tennis team enjoyed immense success at this time, winning 3 Sac Joaquin Section titles in coed tennis whilst making 11 trips to the finals, 10 straight and many against then rival Justin-Siena High School. By contrast, the football and softball teams performed abysmally, with the football program changing head coaches every other year.

By the late 1990’s, basketball had slowly rose to prominence once again, reaching the Sac Joaquin playoffs numerous times. It was announced, however, that 1999 would be St. Helena’s final year in the SCAL which had fallen on hard times. Only 5 schools remained and the league would soon fold. In the twilight of the SCAL’s salad days, St. Helena surprised many, finishing the 1999 football season with a 9-1 record, falling short of going undefeated. With the SCAL defunct by mid 2000, St. Helena was assigned into the North Coast League along with Justin-Siena by the CIF. Justin-Siena later moved to the Marin County League, to face other competition.

In this new environment, progress was slow, and league titles were scarce. The tennis team, which had been such a powerhouse in the Sac Joaquin Section, was shocked to learn that the North Coast Section did not offer Coed Tennis, thus hindering any chance of winning a section title. Volleyball continued it’s success, regularly putting up winning records. Baseball, which has never truly been a powerhouse sport at St. Helena, underwent a revival at about this time, first with a non-losing season, finishing at .500 for the first time since the mid ‘80s. The following season, they finished with a winning season, a sign that baseball, though not at a top tier level, is starting to rise at St. Helena.

The soccer team, which had started as a school club in the 1970’s had begun to show success in the late 90’s. Eventually, when St. Helena moved to the NCS, the Saints became a regular contender in the NCL as well as the section playoffs. Recent years have shown the team going deep in the section playoffs, reaching the championship in 2004 before falling to University High School of San Francisco. University has proven to be a hindrance to St. Helena’s success as the two face each other regularly in the post season, most recently being the quarter finals where University narrowly won.

The football team continued in mediocrity until 2004 when head coach Ian MacMillan arrived, taking the team 9-1 in his first season. Though initially wary of MacMillan for being a Justin grad, the community eventually warmed up as he built the program up, culminating in a league title in 2006, the first league title for football since 1978. MacMillan left afterwards, to help coach at Napa High School. His successor, Dave Collinsworth, was hyped to continue this trend, and to possibly lead the team to a section title. Those plans never came to fruition as the team returned to it’s losing ways, going 2-8. Collinsworth departed at the end of the season, leaving the football program four steps forward, but five steps back. He has since accepted a job as a JV Head Coach. At this time, the basketball team began to rise once again, after having no winning seasons since their leave from the SCAL, all four teams finished with winning campaigns in 2008.

Traditionally, St. Helena's rival is Justin-Siena High School of nearby Napa. The two school's football teams would meet each year in what was known as the Vine Bowl until 2000 when Justin-Siena joined the MCAL making matches against St. Helena and Justin-Siena scarce and relegated to just the NCS Playoffs. Justin-Siena, however, has never seen St. Helena as a rival. St. Helena's geographic rival, Calistoga has moved to another league within the Coastal Mountain Conference making their matchups scarce as well, though they are slated to face each other in football beginning in 2008. Lately, however, sporting events against Middletown High School of nearby Middletown have become more heated and a small rivalry has started to form.

External links